API – 1.0 on Yandex Maps from ScanEx

18 November 2008, 8:03am

2008-11-18 - Last Thursday was marked with launching the API on Yandex Maps service, which represented a turning point in accessing geospatial data in Russia. YandexMaps being one of the most popular Internet-resources offers the most detailed map of Russia on the Internet, selection of space imagery mosaics for Russian and CIS cities with spatial resolution up to 80 meters (IKONOS data), capability to search by street names and building numbers and many other features. It is used as a basis for developing free services such as YandexProbki (traffic jams) and News on the Map.

Thanks to the new API service (Java Script-based programmatic interface), now you can integrate interactive maps and satellite images in your web pages. Use of special utilities allows control of the interactive map built in the personal web site as well as showing special objects (mark-ups, lines, pop-ups, etc). To use all these features you will only be required to get registered on the web site, get familiar with the conditions of the User Agreement and install a unique API-key – and all this free-of-charge. The only and perhaps the most important limitation is prohibition on using the service for commercial purposes.

ScanEx center is not only the provider of satellite data for Yandex projects but also an active participant in the process of forming the new services market for provision of Earth remote sensing data. The market of accessing remote sensing data keeps developing rapidly setting aside semi-professional products from professional ones (GeoTiff format with selection of channels, geolocation and entire set of service data required for processing satellite imagery with the use of specialized software at a standard market price) when full-fledged in terms of content but simplified information is required at a considerably lower price. Therefore new user niches start emerging, which require a product simpler than a professional one for modest money or for free. We are glad to observe these indispensable attributes of the process of developing Earth remote sensing industry and the creation of competitive multi-purpose and democratic market of remote sensing data.

ScanEx R&D Center

Geo: International